Chemistry has made countless contributions to enhancing modern life by making it more comfortable, safe and prosperous.

Chemistry is a physical science that studies atoms, molecules, crystals and other aggregates of matter. Understanding the basic properties of matter and learning how to predict and explain changes are what chemistry and chemists are all about. Chemistry can be very specialized, dealing with the composition, behavior, structure and properties of matter, as well as changes that occur during chemical reactions.

When you think of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), what do you think of? The national laboratories? DOE’s leadership role in reliable, clean and affordable energy? Scientific discovery and innovation? Nuclear security? DOE has a role in all of these things, and more. Now, do you think about DOE’s connection with higher education? Probably not, but we want to change that.

EDUconnections is a year old project, and through it we celebrate our university partners, spotlighting a different higher education institution every month.

Technical reports and journal articles are both used to report the results of research and development projects. There are differences between the two that are driven by the objectives of each form of reporting.

The primary objective of journal articles is to report results of experimental and/or theoretical scientific investigations to enhance the body of scientific knowledge. This is the primary way that (1) science advances and (2) the scientific community communicates among its members and practitioners. Typically, there are space limitations prescribed by the journal publisher that limit the length of journal articles usually to only a few pages. Journal articles are almost always subjected to a rigorous peer review process before they are accepted for publication.

How did sharing data lead to progress on Alzheimer’s? A collaborative effort, the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, was formed to find the biological markers that show the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain. The key was to share all the data, making every finding public immediately – “available to anyone with a computer anywhere in the world.”